CNN’s Elie Honig Aghast at ‘Disastrous’ Testimony from Stormy Daniels During Cross-Examination: ‘That’s a Big Damn Deal!’

CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig said the cross-examination of Stormy Daniels went poorly for the prosecution in Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial.

The former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal extramarital affairs. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies the affairs – including one with Daniels in 2006.

On direct examination, the prosecution asked Daniels some open-ended questions about the nature of the sexual encounter she said she had with Trump. Daniels gave what Judge Juan Merchan found were overly graphic details and he sustained multiple objects from Trump’s attorneys on that basis.

When questioned by the defense, Daniels admitted to hating Trump, who allegedly arranged a hush money payment of $130,000 to her before the 2016 election.

“Am I correct that you hate President Trump?” Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked the witness.

“Yes,” Daniels replied.

During CNN’s recap of the day’s proceedings, Honig called Daniels’ testimony about the affair “plausible.”

“It’s hard for me to believe that a juror heard that and thought, this is entirely made up,” he said. “There may well be some embellishments… but I think it’s quite clear they had sex in 2006 in that hotel room.”

However, Honig said the cross-examination was “disastrous” for the prosecution:

But the cross-exam, boy. Her responses were disastrous. I mean, “Do you hate Donald Trump?” “Yes.” Of course, she does. That’s a big deal. When the witness hates the person whose liberty is at stake, that’s a big damn deal! And she’s putting out tweets, fantasizing about him being in jail. That really undermines the credibility.

The fact that she owes him $500,000 by order of a court, owes Donald Trump a half million dollars, and said, “I will never pay him. I will defy a court order,” the defense is gonna say, “She’s willing to defy a court order. She’s not willing to respect an order from a judge. Why is she gonna respect this oath she took? So, I thought it went quite poorly on cross-exam.

Watch above via CNN.

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